IN THE
NEWS...IN THE NEWS..
VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING MAKES FOR A PHV JOURNEY LIKE NO OTHER IN SWINDON
A taxi driver decid- ed to stand out from the crowd by kitting out his cab with top tech to keep his pas- sengers entertained. The Swindon Adver- tiser reports that Mark Bates of Virtu- al Taxi added a VR headset, PlayStation 4 and 17-inch televi- sion to the back seats of his PHV to liven up long jour- neys for his cus- tomers. The 53-year-old has been driving people around Swindon for 21 years and first toyed with the idea of backseat gaming a decade ago by setting up a PlaySta- tion 2 in his old car.
He left the console behind when he changed from a PHV to a black cab. Then in 2019, he decided to go all-out and splash £6,000 on a new vehicle fully-fit- ted with the latest tech after receiving inspiration from an unusual source. He said: “It’s my
dream taxi - literally, the idea came from a dream and I decid- ed to make it a reality. “It’s been pretty popular so far, the customers love it and think it’s bril- liant. I’ve never had such a response before. “I’ve been doing
really well over the last 18 months, though of course things have taken a bit of a dip since the lockdown started. But now that restric- tions are easing and airports are open again, my bookings are picking up. “This is a whole new paradigm for taxi drivers now and I’ve heard of several drivers retiring and handing over their keys, but I’ve got a unique vehicle and a good Google pres- ence so I think for me, the future is bright.” Mark is hoping to take this concept and run with it,
expanding the area he covers, increas- ing the maximum length of his jour- neys from ten miles to 20 miles, fitting out more cabs with consoles and re- cruiting more dri- vers to turn his one- man start-up into a national company. The PlayStation
games can be played at any time during the journey and the virtual reali- ty headset can be worn in the front passenger seat or in the back. And if passengers beat his lap time on Gran Turismo, they get up to a tenner off their cab fare.
32
AUGUST 2020
VIKING – PROUD TO SUPPORT OUR TRADE
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